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Greg Werkheiser supports a funding formula that will rip off Northern Virginia and send your tax dollars downstate.

TRUTH   

This is Albo’s best one yet.  Here’s the citation that Albo uses when making this claim: "Washington Post, 'Kaine Sees Transportation Package as Win-Win,' 5/18/08"

Just one problem:  no such article exists.

The only piece on that date in the Washington Post where Greg is quoted is reprinted below.  Not only does Greg not support ripping off Northern Virginia, he takes Governor Kaine to task for not doing a better job.

The truth is, Greg has called for a change to the funding formula and tax CUTS for middle class Virginians and small businesses.

Who HAS called for tax hikes?            Dave Albo.  He said so himself this September in the Fairfax Times.  Read it for yourself HERE. 

Albo has a consistent 16 year record of siding with downstate politicians who road-block the funding formula changes that Northern Virginia needs.  In fact, this past year alone, Albo voted 97% of the time with the House Speaker, Northern Virginia funding rip-off artist Bill Howell. 

VERDICT:            DEBUNKED

The Washington Post 

May 18, 2008 Sunday

Met 2 Edition

Roads Plan Part Of Kaine Strategy;

GOP Opponents Will Suffer at Polls, Governor Predicts 

BYLINE: Tim Craig; Washington Post Staff Writer

SECTION: METRO; Pg. C01

DATELINE: RICHMOND

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) is giving House and Senate Republicans an ultimatum in the fight over transportation money: Work with me to make a deal, or face political repercussions from voters in next year's election.

In blunt talk demonstrating his dual policy and political goals, the governor says he is convinced that he cannot lose when the General Assembly returns for a special session June 23 to consider his $1.1 billion tax proposal.

If legislators vote to increase taxes and fees, Kaine said, there would be more money for transportation, fulfilling one of his major policy goals. If Republicans block efforts to raise money statewide for roads, Kaine said Democrats would be on their way toward building a permanent majority in Virginia by painting state GOP lawmakers as obstructionists out of touch with the need to improve Virginians' quality of life.

"It will be very productive to either try to find a solution or make it plain to people who are standing in the way," said Kaine, who raised $4 million last year to help Democrats retake the state Senate. "We are going to make something happen or let the public see who is obstructing, andfrankly, that is one of the reasons why Democrats have won elections in Virginia."

But many Republicans, and even some Democrats, say Kaine's latest plan for higher taxes goes too far, threatening the reputation of the state party he has worked so hard to build up.

"It paints once again . . . Democrats as the tax hikers, and in a recession, in particular, that is not a good thing to be to the average voter," said Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R-Fairfax), a candidate for attorney general next year.

Former governor L. Douglas Wilder (D), Richmond's mayor, also questioned Kaine's strategy of pushing for statewide and regional tax increases. Kaine unveiled a proposal Monday that includes higher taxes on car sales, an increase in vehicle registration fees and a 1-cent sales tax increase in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

"It has consequences, and it's going to make it difficult for Democrats in next year's elections," said Wilder, noting that it is unusual for a governor to push for a tax increase proposal without first locking up support for it in at least one chamber of the General Assembly. "It's probably not going to be approved." 

Wilder has also been skeptical of past efforts to raise taxes, but Kaine's style on the issue underscores the harder edge he is taking with his rivals.

When Mark R. Warner (D) wrestled the governor's mansion from Republicans in 2001, he governed largely through a prism of not challenging the underlyingconservative nature of the state, although he did win support for a $1 billion tax increase for schools and social services in 2004.

Kaine, elected in 2005 in part because Warner left office with record-high approval ratings, has been more willing to try to force House and Senate Republicans into taking tough votes, especially those who represent Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia, regions rapidly trending Democratic in elections.

Kaine's approach has resulted in a number of legislative defeats, such as his efforts to close a gun show loophole and ban smoking in restaurants, but the governor has also helped force the Republican-controlled House to slowly change some of its conservative views.

After blocking Kaine's efforts to raise taxes to build roads in 2006, Republicans in the General Assembly approved their own transportation plan last year after party leaders started worrying about big losses in the November 2007 state legislative elections.

Kaine signed the GOP plan, despite reservations from Senate Democrats. But the Virginia Supreme Court threw out the part of the plan that involved regional taxing authorities in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia because lawmakers had given taxing authority to an unelected body.

Now Kaine is back for another round of debate over resolving the state's transportation challenges, which the governor calls a major threat to economic growth, hurricane and terrorism evacuation plans, and highway safety.

Instead of just trying to address the court's concerns about the regional plans, an approach being pushed by Republicans, Kaine and Democratic leaders have decided to also try to tackle a $389 million shortfall in the part of the budget used to maintain roads.

But Kaine and Democrats are unable to agree on which taxes should be raised. In addition to the increase in sales taxes and registration fees, Kaine also wants to boost taxes assessed on the seller of a house, which would pay for public transportation projects. 

"The real issue is, everything gets more expensive if we wait. The responsible thing is to act now," Kaine said Tuesday at a town hall meeting in Woodbridge.

Michael Thompson, president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a conservative-leaning think tank in Fairfax County, questioned why Kaine is pushing for a statewide tax increase when the Supreme Court ruling dealt with only regional taxing authorities. 

"Everybody already bought into it. The pieces are already there, so why not just patch the problem?" asked Thompson, who said that the General Assembly should authorize a referendum on Kaine's proposal in the fall.

House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said Republicans, who are eager to salvage the regional plans but opposed to a statewide tax increase, think Kaine "is trying to set them up" for the 2009 election.

All 100 delegates are up for reelection next year. Voters will also choose a new governor.

"He is sacrificing good government for politics," Griffith said.

House Majority Leader Ward L. Armstrong (D-Henry) countered, saying that Kaine "always puts policy ahead of politics."

"I've served with five governors, and Kaine is the least political of the five," Armstrong said. "He believes there is a way to make this happen, soit is incumbent on him to try."

Kaine clearly relishes the political game, as evidenced by his active rolein Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign and his efforts last year to flip the Senate into Democratic control.

Unless Republicans agree to a transportation fix this year, Kaine said, "the voters are going to come after them." Democrats are six seats shy of a majority in the House.

Greg Werkheiser, a Democrat who is considering challenging Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) next year, said his neighbors in southern Fairfax wantlegislators to "be mature and negotiate a viable solution" that doesn't involve "transportation gimmicks that waste our time."

But Werkheiser said he's still not convinced that Kaine has sold the public on his proposed tax increases.

"I think the governor has to make the debate real for people. Otherwise it makes it easy for Republicans like Albo to say, 'Oh, he just wants to raise your taxes,' " Werkheiser said. "You have to reveal to them what the world looks like once you made use of their hard-earned tax dollars."

Staff writer Jennifer Buske contributed to this report.